Profile: Daphne Large

by Jane Ledwell

The area once known as “Clifton Corner” once was a “bustling village” with a two-storey general store where you could buy everything from beans to furniture. The village continued to bustle as, years later, the original Presbyterian manse became a new general store run by Kitty Cotton, who was also postmistress. “The store was where people would gather on Saturday night—mai

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Profile: Teresa Doyle

by Jane Ledwell

In 1980, when an adventurous, just-out-of-school Teresa Doyle played the Winnipeg Folk Festival, less than a handful of folk musicians were touring out of the East Coast.

At the 2013 East Coast Music Awards in Halifax, the Island singing legend and 12 other of those pioneers received a 25th Anniversary Award. “It was a really nostalgic night,” she says, not only bec

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Profile: Dianne Hicks Morrow

by Jane Ledwell

I believe anyone can write a poem,” says PEI’s new poet laureate, Dianne Hicks Morrow, emphatically. “I also believe a poem can be about anything… And that for me is the whole point.” She is getting over the initial shock of her appointment to the laureate’s role and is filled with enthusiastic hopes and plans for her three-year term promoting the literary arts, and p

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Profile: Gordon Belsher

by Jane Ledwell

The carpet on the wall is a dead giveaway: I’m in a recording studio. True to its name, Gordon Belsher’s Guernsey Cove Parlour Productions studio is in a parlour room in beautiful, Guernsey Cove, PEI. Gordon first started recording there in 1991, beginning with his own group, Jar O’Comfort, which also included his wife Charlene. Since then, it would be hard to na

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Profile: Carol Bellamy

by Jane Ledwell

Nothing is more exciting for a young ballet dancer than going up en pointe—finally dancing on the tips of the toes in elegance and grace. Nothing is more important to achieving this milestone than properly fitted pointe shoes. And no one on Prince Edward Island has fitted more young dancers with shoes than Carol Bellamy of Demi-Pointe dance shop.

“Your feet are i

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Profile: Ron Arvidson

by Jane Ledwell

The first time Ron Arvidson saw a potter transforming an unformed lump of clay, the young art student knew it was a “magical” art he wanted to master. After creating pottery professionally more than 40 years, the soft-spoken potter makes modest claims for his magic. “I try to grow from one piece to another,” he says. “One [piece] has to be better than the last… There’s n

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Profile: Lionel Stevenson

by Jane Ledwell

"Photography is a vast subject," says Lionel Stevenson. "There is no discipline, from medicine to astronomy, that doesn't use photography. But fine art photography is not concerned about the things that are recorded so much as the expression."

Though he grew up in New Brunswick, Lionel Stevenson's beginnings as a photographer were here. In 1947, at eight

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Profile: Patti Larsen

by Jane Ledwell

Patti Larsen hears voices—and they tell her to write books. When she sold her successful salon business to become a full-time writer, Patti not only remade her life and career—she placed herself on the forefront of remaking the publishing industry, as an independent writer and publisher. From her PEI home, Patti has 23 books on the market and dozens more to come to

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Profile: Wade Lynch

by Jane Ledwell

Twenty years ago this past June, a fresh-faced comedic actor named Wade Lynch first stepped on the Island—“stepped off the ferry, no less,” he says—and stayed. Grinning broadly, throwing his arms wide, he says, “I’ve been embraced by the Island—and I’ve hugged it back.”

In twenty years, not only has Wade had juicy acting roles at the Charlottetown Festival—from

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Profile: Alanna Jankov

by Jane Ledwell

Many Buzz interviews in the past have included Alanna Jankov. For years, she took the photos that accompanied the artist profiles on this page. Sometimes the interview and the photo shoot overlapped, and I could count on Alanna’s offbeat humour to set interview subjects at ease. One interview subject made sure Alanna was going to be the photographer before agreeing t

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The Great Kapok Tree

Review by Jane Ledwell

On a hot summer day, what refreshes you most? How about the shade of a magnificent tree and a chance to breathe in the lush green moisture of the Amazon rainforest? Not literally, of course. But your imagination will take you and your family there if you visit The Guild for The Great Kapok Tree by Luminosity black light theatre.

In this adaptation from a

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Travels with My Aunt

Review by Jane Ledwell

I’ve never been disappointed by a play at the Montgomery Theatre. The gorgeous drive to Rustico, the North Shore air, the rustic charm and elegance of the theatre building, and the sophisticated performances strip me of criticism. Oh, well. I love the theatre-in-the-round layout of the stage, the clever and open theatricality of the productions, the risk-taking a

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